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When the World Cup brings a community together

I was standing in the central atrium of Galleria mall near Dufferin and Dupont on Wednesday, watching the World Cup matchup between Brazil and Croatia.

A young man beside me started marvelling in amazement as he learned the results of an earlier game. “Germany is out? Really?”

Galleria mall has been broadcasting World Cup games. Large crowds have become a daily scene. (Andrew Francis Wallace / Toronto Star)

An older man beside us, perhaps in his late 50s, started sketching in the details; it had been nil-nil in the 90th minute, then wound up 2-0. He told us the game to watch was coming up. “Doesn’t matter. Final is Spain or Argentina, whoever wins.”

Another middle-aged man held up his phone to show me the tournament schedule and marvel at another big upset, by Sweden over Mexico. I had to take his word for what it said on his screen, because I don’t read Arabic.

There was a roar all around us. “Who scored,” a woman walking past said? “Brazil? Good!” She pumped her fist and walked on.

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There were about 60 people gathered before a pull-down screen onto which a projector surrounded by velvet ropes displayed the game. They sat on rows of benches relocated from other areas of the mall. Or on the stools and patio tables of the El Amigo restaurant, where they munched on beef patties and sipped coffee. Others sat on the polished tan tiles of the floor. It was a mostly older crowd, mostly men, some wearing hats displaying their sympathies for Senegal or Russia or Portugal in the tournament. Heavily tattooed women in workout gear paused for a few moments on their way past to Planet Fitness. Staff of Dollarama and Rexall and the mall security guards wandered by to spend a few minutes during breaks.

It has become a daily scene at the mall, which has been broadcasting all the World Cup games here.

“It’s a community mall, we get a lot of people hanging around, they like to get together and talk, find something to do,” said Bruno Rocha, Galleria’s operations manager. “We get regulars, they come with friends, stick around afterward disputing the games. It’s good for the community.”

He says they did the same thing during the Euro Cup in 2016. That proved overwhelmingly popular, “Especially since we won — Portugal won,” he said.

The community of seniors who frequent the mall are overwhelmingly Portuguese, and indeed when I was there on Monday when Ronaldo’s reds narrowly defeated Iran, there was an even larger and more vocal crowd on hand.

It’s fair to say the mall is not famous for being a hot spot these days. After a developer bought the property in 2015, people, including me, started writing eulogies that made mention of its time-capsule qualities. Today, among the vacancies and the “closing sales,” there’s a “Reimagine Galleria” storefront soliciting advice on the redevelopment that’s in the works. The “Galleria Smoker’s Choice” display window is still there, prominently empty. There’s a “Clearance Sale” table where you can buy barbecue foil or loose shirt buttons or preloved youth hockey trophies such as one commemorating the “Foodland Tournament Novice Consolation 1990.”

In 2015, Cristina Jackson, who started working there in 1979 and was still in the management office, told me it still served a purpose, as it always had, as a place “where friends meet ... everybody knows everybody, it becomes a family,” she said. “It’s a community mall.”

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That word keeps coming up. “It’s good for the community,” said Fatima, behind the counter at Toronto Sports and Hobby Shows, when I asked her if the World Cup crowd was good for business. The store sells soccer jerseys and flags, hats, and memorabilia — a Ronaldo shirt was hanging prominently on the wall. She says business for her shop is always good during the World Cup, but not necessarily from the crowd gathered outside her shop. But she enthusiastically agrees it livens up the mall.

“Definitely, it’s fun to watch it together,” she says. “Especially for the older people. Not everyone has the channels,” she says, to watch the game at home. “It’s air-conditioned, there’s a bakery. It’s fun.”

For me, someone who has little invested in soccer as a pastime, the World Cup can still be a magical time in the city, seeing pockets of people gather to watch and cheer and talk.

The world’s game, celebrated in a city where much of the world has come to live. For a few weeks, it is everywhere you look. In bars and restaurants and cafes. In living rooms. In the lobbies of office towers and the TV screens behind the counters in variety stores and gas stations.

The games themselves are exciting to watch, but many of us find them more fun if we have a community to watch them with. If you’re looking for one during Saturday’s knockout game between Portugal and Uruguay, you could do worse than the Galleria on Dupont. There’s air-conditioning, and a bakery, a crowd of friendly people. There’s even consolation-prize trophies, ready if needed.

Edward Keenan is a columnist based in Toronto covering urban affairs. Follow him on Twitter: @thekeenanwire

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